{"id":4616,"date":"2023-12-27T01:29:25","date_gmt":"2023-12-27T01:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/?p=4616"},"modified":"2023-12-28T13:23:52","modified_gmt":"2023-12-28T13:23:52","slug":"2023-a-year-in-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/archives\/4616","title":{"rendered":"2023: A Year In Games"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>2023 is wrapping up with many critics claiming it resides shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the best years in gaming history.  My experience isn&#8217;t quite so stellar, but <\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s go through some lists starting with titles that were released <i>before<\/i> 2023, all while realizing that the <i>true<\/i> best game I played this past year was <b>Bloodborne<\/b>!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb096efec11-screenshotUrl-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb096efec11-screenshotUrl-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-4629\" srcset=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb096efec11-screenshotUrl-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb096efec11-screenshotUrl-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb096efec11-screenshotUrl-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb096efec11-screenshotUrl-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb096efec11-screenshotUrl-2048x1152.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Older Games Played:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dark Souls III\n<li>A Plague Tale: Innocence\n<li>SteamWorld Dig\n<li>SteamWorld Dig 2\n<li>Rogue Legacy 2\n<li>Neon White\n<li>Lunistice\n<\/ul>\n<p>Of those titles, I completed the 2D ones only.  While I had played <B>Rogue Legacy 2<\/b> on Steam the prior year, it was only when I got it for free on PS+, and could play from my couch, that I beat it.  Admittedly, I lowered the difficulty to blaze through chunks that I had beaten before.  In some ways this game is perfect: allowing for those changes to difficulty, a fantastic gameplay loop and incredibly-tight and responsive controls.  Several of the theme songs stuck in my head for quite some time and it was a fun experience.  However, my <b>Old Game Of The Year<\/b>, if that were a category, would go to <b>SteamWorld Dig 2<\/b>.  It&#8217;s so funny, I got a trophy in the first game way back in 2013 and I remember playing it and abandoning it.  No clue what drove me to return, but once I started, I was <i>hooked<\/i>.  After blazing through the first title, I anxiously awaited a sale price for the second, eventually pulling the trigger without one, that&#8217;s how much I liked it.  And the sequel did not disappoint, living up to and exceeding my praise of the first.  I simply loved that game and, much like the emptiness felt after completing <b>Elden Ring<\/b>, I continually yearn for a similar experience, with no satisfaction.  In fact, if I were ranking the best games of the year regardless of their release date, <b>SteamWorld Dig 2<\/b> would be in contention.  <\/p>\n<p>The other titles all had qualities of their own, but not enough to keep me returning to them.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb08c7c4024-screenshotUrl-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb08c7c4024-screenshotUrl-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-4624\" srcset=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb08c7c4024-screenshotUrl-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb08c7c4024-screenshotUrl-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb08c7c4024-screenshotUrl-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb08c7c4024-screenshotUrl-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb08c7c4024-screenshotUrl-2048x1152.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Moving along, now we look at titles released this year that I <i>have yet to play<\/i> in 2023:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Alan Wake 2 (Some day I&#8217;ll try)\n<li>Baldur&#8217;s Gate 3 (Trial was cool, dunno if it&#8217;s for me)\n<li>Blasphemous 2 (Curious, not much more)\n<li>Cocoon (Hmmm)\n<li>Dead Space (Maybe an &#8216;on-sale&#8217; game)\n<li>Diablo 4 (Trial run, felt like D3, really)\n<li>Hi-Fi Rush (Maybe when I get an Xbox!)\n<li>Octopath Traveler 2 (Never played the first)\n<li>Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (Lost interest in the first)\n<li>The Talos Principle 2 (Never beat the first)\n<li>Viewfinder (Demo was fun!)\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are a few games I&#8217;d like to try, but none here give me the burning desire to jump in.  Games like <b>Pikmin<\/b> and <b>Fire Emblem<\/b> may be great, but do I care?  Nothing above are a <i>have to play<\/i> game, despite how good <b>BG3<\/b> appears to be.  <\/p>\n<p>Our final category is the games I have indeed played this year, and ranking them isn&#8217;t very easy.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb096d6b796-screenshotUrl-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb096d6b796-screenshotUrl-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-4628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb096d6b796-screenshotUrl-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb096d6b796-screenshotUrl-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb096d6b796-screenshotUrl-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb096d6b796-screenshotUrl-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb096d6b796-screenshotUrl-2048x1152.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>2023 Games:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Final Fantasy XVI\n<li>The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom\n<li>Lies Of P\n<li>Resident Evil 4\n<li>Sea Of Stars\n<li>Street Fighter 6\n<li>Super Mario Bros. Wonder\n<li>Xenotilt\n<\/ul>\n<p>As I work through <b>Lies Of P<\/b> and <b>Sea Of Stars<\/b>, I quite like the former due to its obvious inspirations and feel indifferent towards the latter.  I beat neither <b>Zelda<\/b>, much as I didn&#8217;t its predecessor, nor <b>FFXVI<\/b>, losing interest after numerous hours.  <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb08c5e5017-screenshotUrl-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb08c5e5017-screenshotUrl-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-4623\" srcset=\"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb08c5e5017-screenshotUrl-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb08c5e5017-screenshotUrl-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb08c5e5017-screenshotUrl-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb08c5e5017-screenshotUrl-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/18cb08c5e5017-screenshotUrl-2048x1152.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Thus, we&#8217;ve whittled down the list to four games, all sequels.  As much as I love <b>Mario<\/b> games &#8211; and I do like the franchise &#8211; nothing about <b>Wonder<\/b> stood out to me, despite what everyone else thinks.  <\/p>\n<p>And then there were three.  <b>Xenotilt<\/b> probably improves on everything in <b>Demon&#8217;s Tilt<\/b>.  As <b>DT<\/b> is in my top-20 ever, I struggle to wonder which should be on that list.  In either event: it&#8217;s not 2023&#8217;s GOTY.<\/p>\n<p>Capcom ends up holding the trophy, as the remaining games are both theirs.  And this decision is a difficult one.  By all accounts, <b>Resident Evil 4<\/b> should do what no game has ever done: won the trophy as both an original release and a remake!  But while it effectively replaces the original, I think I have to give it to <b>Street Fighter 6<\/b>.  The gameplay is honed.  The systems are polished.  The game is just fun and it&#8217;s the best launch-SF game since <b>SFII<\/b>.   I absolutely love this title and have no reservations awarding it GOTY, even if <b>RE4<\/b> is as good as it is &#8211; DLC included!  <\/p>\n<p>So there it is: Game Of The Year 2023 is <b>Street Fighter 6<\/b>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2023 is wrapping up with many critics claiming it resides shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the best years in gaming history. My experience isn&#8217;t quite so stellar, but Let&#8217;s go through some lists starting with titles that were released before 2023, all while realizing that the true best game I played this past year was Bloodborne! [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,15,18,4,42,78,83,9,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-worst","category-blog","category-dodon-pachi","category-games","category-lists","category-personal","category-resident-evil","category-street-fighter","category-ys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4616"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4630,"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4616\/revisions\/4630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slateman.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}